Kathmandu, March 29
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli as the chairman of the ruling Nepal Communist Party has suspended Madhav Kumar Nepal and Bhim Bahadur Rawal from the party for the next six months.
Stating that recent clarifications submitted the two leaders were not satisfactory, Oli expelled them, it has been learned.
Earlier, a meeting of the party’s central committee in absence of the leaders of the rival camp led by Nepal had sought clarifications from Nepal, Rawal, Ghana Shyam Bhusal and Surendra Pandey accusing them of conducting various activities against the party leadership. Bhusal and Pandey have not submitted the clarifications yet.
Before that, Oli had removed leaders of the rival camp from party responsibilities. In response, the camp had organised a national cadres’ meeting and has been forming parallel committees in sister organisations and various districts.
On March 7, a verdict by the Supreme Court had revived the UML and the Maoist Centre by declaring the 2018 unification between them illegitimate. This decision had forced Nepal, who was preparing to split the NCP and form a party with the Maoist Centre’s Pushpa Kamal Dahal by removing Oli, to return to the UML controlled by him.
Many fear that the UML is heading towards a split.
